Spain's Eroski reduces losses by 15%

Spanish supermarket chain Eroski said today that it has managed to reduce its annual losses by 15.7% over the past year.

Eroski, the co-operative chain which falls under the Mondragón Corporation group, managed to cut its losses by €19 million to €102 million in the 12-month-period.

In a statement released today accompanying its full-year figures, Eroski said that it was able to reduce losses by cutting the prices of thousands of FMCG products. "These cuts lead to customer savings of €79 million for the year," the company said.

The supermarket chain closed its financial year on 31 January 2014 with an operating profit of €41.4 million more than six times than the company's 2013 operating profit of €6.3 million.

Revenue at the Elorrio-based retailer was hit "by by the economic downturn and weaker consumption", sallying 4.39% to €6.7 billion. However, the company noted that a change in policy allowed sales to increase by 4% in the second half of the year.

Eroski is still working with various financial institutions to restructure its near €70 billion debt.